Analysis on China's low carbon vehicle future published

Date

08 August 2011

BEIJING: The Climate Group China has published a Climate Policy Briefing which evaluates the development of low carbon vehicles in China through an overview of the country's policy, technology and industry structure, helping to clarify and accelerate a Clean Revolution in the transport sector.

Earlier this year, the Chinese Government published China’s 12th Five Year Plan, which marked a new era of clean energy in the transport trade, among other key industries.

The Climate Group China has published a Climate Policy Briefing report, which provides robust analysis on green and renewable energy vehicles from the perspectives of policy, technology and industry structure.

The report is only published in Chinese, but in summary the Briefing calls for action from the Chinese Government in four key areas:

Produce a clearer road map for industry development

Cohesion within the sector needs to be strengthened to provide a healthy market platform to facilitate cooperation across similar businesses, such as green energy vehicles, smart grids, renewable energy and other relevant areas. Smooth and active coordination with external resources is also vital to ensure the marketability and feasibility of future industry development. A clear internal sector division and external coordination mechanism are crucial to ensuring a successful outcome of the China’s 12th Five Year Plan.

Concentrate on breaking through the technology bottle-neck

Independent technology innovation is key to breaking through the industry development bottle-neck. After decades of strong economic growth, Chinese enterprises are now starting to aim at the top end of the value chain, where businesses are largely based on high technology and innovation capacity. The Chinese Government supports green-tech innovation and entrepreneurship with incentives through favourable taxation on innovative enterprises. Higher emission standards are also supported by the Government, which urge technology upgrades and establishment of Government-led network platform to strengthen cooperation among universities, research centers and industries.

Cultivate the market

Given the vulnerability of the renewable energy industry during its infant stages, the market could be consolidated by close corporations between enterprises and government in China. We suggest that the Government allows consumer subsidies in the green energy vehicle industry and introduce tax reform on traditional vehicles. We believe such actions would increase the market accessibility, provide influential incentives for technology innovation and drive the market in a healthy and sustainable direction.

Support a wider infrastructure network

Expanding the EV charging infrastructure would make electric vehicles more attractive and affordable to the market. But greater investment is needed from Government and business to ensure sufficient funding of national wide infrastructure. We suggest the Government adopts coordinative plans of infrastructure projects between electric vehicles and smart grids to improve the establishment of a standardized construction framework on infrastructure projects.